The invention pertains to a process for the manufacture of blankets and to the product obtained from said process.
It is known that one of the most important features a blanket should have is its capability to offer a good heat-insulation, that is a high nonconducting property, while at the same time exhibiting low weight values per surface unit. It is also very important that the heat-insulation offered by the blanket should last in time even when the blanket is subjected to wear as a result of a protracted use as well as of several washings.
Traditional blankets currently produced are wholly or partially made of wool and during the production process with which they are concerned they generally undergo teaseling and napping operations on both of their surfaces. Said teaseling and napping operations substantially consist in raising, by means of suitable apparatuses, a thick down on the blanket surface by lifting part of the fibers forming the wool yarns. Between the fibers so disposed a plurality of very small air spaces is formed which enhances the nonconducting property of the blanket.
It has been noted however that when the blanket is washed and/or handled, the fibers constituting the teaseled and napped surface are almost always subjected to entanglement with each other thereby causing a surface shrinkage and, as a result, a remarkable reduction in the volume and number of the above mentioned air spaces. Said reduction obviously involves a decrease of the heat insulation offered by the blanket.
Blankets substantially consisting of two wool fabrics interlaced with each other through their respective weft or warp yarns have also been produced. Said linked fabrics directly obtained from a weaving step, are subsequently teaseled on their visible surfaces.
Said blankets have exhibited a greater insulating property than traditional blankets, their weight per surface unit being equal. This is due to the fact that we must add the insulation caused by a plurality of air spaces formed between the two fabrics, to that produced by the teaseling operation.
In spite of this advantage however, these blankets too as the traditional ones undergo a remarkable decrease of their insulating character when they are washed due to the shrinkage of the teaseled surfaces.
Furthermore, both types of blankets hereinbefore examined due to their particular nature, do not lend themselves to be decorated, in particular by printing. As a matter of fact, owing to the presence of teaseling, the dying substances would tend to spread unevenly by capillarity over the fibers forming said teaseled surfaces.
On the other hand, if the printing would be carried out before the teaseling step, the quality of the patterns printed on the semifinished products would be poor, due to the next teaseling step.
For the above reasons, when these blankets are used, it is also necessary to put a bedspread over them. The latter, generally made of printed material, is adapted to perform those ornamental functions that a blanket would not otherwise succeed in meeting.